Larry Summers At Treasury: A Fox in the Henhouse

Right now, the rumors are that Larry Summers is the choice for the Treasury Secretary post.  As Dean Baker suggests, this would not be a good thing.

It would be a really bad start to his administration if President Obama picked a Treasury Secretary who shares a substantial part of the blame for the bubble economy and the financial crisis. It will not be easy to pick up the pieces and get the economy back on its feet, but we would be going in the wrong direction to put one of the people responsible for getting us in this mess in the top economic position in the Obama administration.

Summers was one of the key proponents of the banking deregulation of 1999 that led to the current financial crisis.  In addition, Larry Summers has argued that women are innately less gifted in science than men, that 'Africa is Underpolluted', that child sweatshop work in Asia is sometimes justified, and that job destroying trade agreements are good for America.

People get stuff wrong all the time.  That's not bad.  But if you got the big stuff wrong, repeatedly, while being warned against it, you shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion.

I set up a petition here, and I'll be sending the comments onward to John Podesta and Michael Strautmanis of the Obama transition team.

Update:  There's also this possible scandal.